When the German trade minister was in India, he wanted to meet the Opposition party leaders in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Rajya Sabha’s Opposition leader Arun Jaitley, along with Pranab Mukherjee, was surprised to see that Opposition leader for Lok Sabha wasn’t there but sent her representative, Nishikant Dubey, a first time MP from Godda, who was a director with a business group in the east. Jaitley couldn’t be himself with Dubey around, so much so that he didn’t even do the formality of introducing the german minister to Dubey. Pranab da came to the rescue and introduced this MP from the saffron party to the German. Later it was revealed that Sushma Swaraj didn’t go merely because she had an on-call with the prime minister. This might pose to an issue later that Dubey’s clout increased after the incident.

Praful Patel was detained at the Chicago airport in the US by mistake and was interrogated for hours. He was let go after the Indian embassy intervened. He was suspected to be another NRI by the same name, who the US is looking for. He is a big speculator in the government and shared his birthday with the aviation minister. With this it was revealed that the minister holds an ordinary blue passport and not the diplomatic one that is red in color. If he did, this incident would probably not have happened. He doesn’t use the government security and doesn’t use the government cars either. That means he likes to keep his travels within and outside of India private. But why? That’s because apart from being a politician, he is also a businessman. And since he is good looking and attractive, things might take a turn, too.

The waning moon is shining bright again/ Today it will be bright for a long time/… If everything burns to embers there will be ash. (Gulzar) Why do people play such games? Why do they stir public emotions? And make a warm meal for themselves on the heat of people’s pains and sorry state. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad Court gave such a significant ruling and the common public took it in its stride and respected it. But Mulayam, Lalu, a judge Sachchar, a Congress-backed news channel and even the country’s home minister is raking it up in a bad light. Chidambaram says it is not a ruling and merely a “reference”. The Supreme Court will give a stay order after three months and the matter will go on in the court for years. Mr Minister, why will the court give a stay order, pray? Included in this ruling is today’s judge Sudhir Agarwal, who is a forward-looking modern man, whose rulings have never been reverted so far. Being a science student, his thinking is more logical and modern and even better English than Chidambaram. Justice Khan has also been a science student who has a lot of interest in history. He has written several books and even made a reference to Charles Darwin in his ruling. Justice Sharma’s personality is unique – he is a believer and a bachelor and more than anything else, a well-known philanthropist. Anonymously, he gives away almost all his income into social causes and prefers to speak in Hindi and is partial to those at the grassroots level. Several of his rulings have become milestones in the legal world. So Mr Minister, think before you speak and also consider the face that the position you are in is rife with enmity and prejudice. Your feelings should match the same.

Right after the culmination of Commonwealth games, there will be the entire episode by the country’s investigative agencies. Several chargesheets are going to be made and all those who are trying to benefit from the corruption involved are being followed by the CBI. The biggest news doing the rounds is that after the games, even Sheila Dixit may be asked to leave. When all are soiled and corrupt, who will 10 Janpath choose to give the Delhi seat? That’s a million dollar question.

After being a dumb show in Assam, Vijay Goyal has asked the party high command to give him the responsibility of some other state than Assam. Sources say that for Goyal, Assam is a dry state and he is eyeing a full-of-cream state like Uttarakhand. And since the BJP government is in power there, there will be more scope for wheeling-dealing and less scoops. It is being said that Goyal can’t get along with Assam’s election secretary Varun Gandhi. It should be remembered that when both reached Assam for the Party’s Working Committee meeting, the entire crowd, supporters and vehicles gathered at the airport surrounded Varun and took him along with them. No one was left to receive Goyal. He then reached the meeting venue in a Nano and had to pay the driver. Mr Goyal, this is what politics is all about. The public knows the difference between two politicians and prefers one who is young and raring to go.

BJP’s problems with Karnataka just don’t seem to end. The state’s chief minister Yedurappa is caught in a clash with his own two party members. These two are the Reddy brothers from Bellary, who have been in the news recently. One Shobha, who is close to Yedurappa and has been a minister in the east, believes that she had to leave her post mid-session only because of the Reddy brothers. Needless to say, she’s not letting any chance go to run them down. So, with a sign from the chief minister, and with a huge sum of money, a popular journalist in Mumbai has been given a neat sum of money to make a film against the Reddy brothers. This film will soon be shown in the auditorium at Indian International Centre or Indian Habitat Centre in Delhi soon. Is the first show of this Karnataka movie being filmed in Delhi because Yedurappa wants to show the mirror to the BJP top brass? But Reddy brothers are not someone to keep quiet. Surely, they will have something up their sleeves, too.

Opposition party leader in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitely is conscious about his political and physical health. One can see him taking morning and evening walks at Lodhi Gardens. Jaitley is now considered among the top leaders of the party, so when he strolls, an entire army of walkers follows him. After the walk, three benches are joined together and a gathering is convened and Jaitley’s followers patiently listen to his views on different topics. One day, when such a session was about to happen, a fat man went and sat on the benches. Jaitely’s supporters tried everything to have him vacate it and sit elsewhere but he wouldn’t relent. He said that since the park was public property, he could sit wherever he wanted. This happened for several days in a row and then a Jaitely fan told him, “Brother, why are you spoiling the fun? Sit somewhere else and I will give you Rs 1 lakh.” The man quipped, “Let me sit here and I will give you Rs 2 lakh.” The man is actually a big property dealer in Delhi and was once considered to be close to Jaitely but because of his vocal nature, Jaitley had distanced himself from the man.

Congress’ two leaders Kapil Sibal and Chidambaram have informally considered themselves “Prime minister in waiting”. Chidambaram’s recent trip to Pakistan, his demeanor all point to it. Sibal, too, doesn’t care about distinguished party leaders when working in his ministry. !0 Janpath and Rahul Gandhi have their eyes on these two. For Sibal, Rahul confidantes have a name “Minister of Announcement” and after every such announcement there’s one refuting it, too. Rahul Gandhi is looking for a person whom he can see as the next human resources development minister, and that is Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani. Rahul calls him Wonder Boy and also believes that he has a big hand in the IT revolution in India. So are tough times ahead for Sibal?

One seen to be in a perpetual hurry, Gadkari has learnt to be patient. It seems to be the case in at least the Jharkhand incident, which also served as showing the mirror to Party big-wigs such as Advani, Sushma and Jaitley. Advani and Sushma were dead against making a government in Jharkhand with Shibu Soren. This, Gadkari consulted his close confidantes (for instance, Piyush Goyal and Rajnath Singh), and he made a plan with them. So much so that he didn’t even care to seek the party’s Parliament Board’s view on the same. Piyush Goyal was made in-charge of “Mission Jharkhand”, and Ajay Sancheti, Tulsi Agarwal, Sandeep Kalia and Naresh Grover were made his assistants. Ajay and Naresh are builders from Nagpur, Sandeep Kalia is from Mumbai, and we have already talked about him in this column. Gadkari got his people to work and himself left for Russia, where senior BJP leaders couldn’t get in touch with him. His overseas number was with Piyush Goyal and his four assistants and was in constant touch with them when there. He appeared only when Arjun Munda’s government was sure to be made.

All 45 first timers in BJP, that is those who have become Parliamentarians for the first time, were taken to Jinjholi camp in Narela adjoining Delhi for political training. It was supposed to be a day’s affair, where Advani was the main speaker. But the arrangements for the camp were so bad that one doesn’t know where to begin complaining. As many as three people were accommodated in one room and they were woken up at an unearthly hour of 4 am. After morning rituals, exercise, yoga, sauna bath, and massage, it was time for breakfast of curd, parathas and vegetables at 9 am. One of the poor leader from Karnataka was bitten by a rat as he slept, and had to be vaccinated for rabies later. Anyways, Advani started speaking at 10, his speech went on for about two-and-a-quarter hours, by when most leaders were sleeping, other were dozing off and those in the first row were trying hard to keep their eyes open. And there was Advani, who every now and then would say, “Please take out your notebooks and make notes. If you put down the main points, it will be easy for you to remember it for the future.” But some of the BJP leaders who had defeated sleep said, “No sir, we will remember.” What were they talking about? Advani’s speech or the bitter experiences at the camp?